


let me call you sweetheart

by helsinkibaby



Category: FBI (TV 2018)
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, Eavesdropping, F/M, Fluff, Het, Romance, Secret Relationship, Someone always finds out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22944214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Maggie overheard something by accident, and rather more than she wants to know.
Relationships: Kristen Chazal/Jubal Valentine
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	let me call you sweetheart

**Author's Note:**

> For a one million words flash fic prompt a couple of weeks ago, “Sweetheart”

“You worry too much.” 

The words followed the sound of the door to the records room opening and Maggie half turned from her kneeling position as she heard Kristen’s voice. The other woman sounded frustrated and Maggie was about to place the lid on the box of files in front of her and call out Kristen’s name when another voice stilled her hand. To say nothing of her whole body. 

“You were stabbed a few weeks ago.” Jubal’s voice was flat. Maggie would have actually preferred if he sounded angry. As it was, those words took her right back to kneeling beside Kristen in that warehouse, watching as her friend’s blood seeped through her fingers, back to those long hours waiting for news from the hospital. “I’d say you’re not worrying enough.” 

“Jubal. I’m fine.” Maggie straightened up carefully, tiptoed to the edge of the shelves, finding a space where she could peer through to see them but they couldn’t see her. Jubal was standing behind Kristen, looking down at her, his hands on his hips, fairly radiating impatience. Kristen, meanwhile, was going about her business, heading for the archive computer, trusty tablet in hand. Her body language was relaxed, even if her voice was tart. “I’m just going to download these records and look over them. I got cleared for field work last week, I think I can handle sitting behind a desk, reading.” 

“Download the records.” Jubal’s voice sounded like he was trying to find a compromise. “Then call it a night. We’re all tired, Kris. We can come at it with fresh eyes in the morning.” 

Maggie found herself agreeing with him. This case was tying them up in knots and they were all running on fumes. Eight hours sleep sure sounded good. But then, she understood where Kristen was coming from too, the need to pull at one more string in hopes it would be the one to unravel the whole mystery. 

Yet she certainly understood Jubal’s concern for Kristen. She’d been keeping an eye on her friend ever since she’d come back to work, though she could admit she’d taken her eye off the ball in the last week or so. Maybe she could suggest a drink, or better yet, dinner and drinks to Kristen, if she managed to get out of the records room without being caught eavesdropping. 

KrIsten didn’t answer in words, not at first. Instead she turned away from Jubal, leaned over one of the computers and typed commands at a furious rate. Maggie expected Jubal to try to convince her, to argue with her. However, he just stood there, watching her, waiting. 

Maggie wasn’t used to seeing Jubal quiet. It was a little unnerving. 

Her typing finished, Kristen straightened up, turned around and took a deep breath. “Jubal-”

“Kris.” He sounded almost amused and when Maggie shifted her gaze from Kristen’s expression to his, he looked it too. His lips twitched as he looked down at Kristen, his eyes dancing with humour and something else. Something that was almost... fondness? No, that wasn’t it, Maggie thought. It was more than that, familiar too, a look she’d seen somewhere before but couldn’t quite place. 

Jason, she realised with a start. Jason used to look at her that way. 

Then, as she watched, Jubal dropped his head, leaning in a bare millimetre, but enough for the air molecules in the room to shift dramatically. He was in Kristen’s personal space, Maggie realised quickly and he looked comfortable enough for Maggie to intuit that he’d been there many times before. And Kristen didn’t exactly look like she minded.

Maggie’s head spun. 

It spun even more when Jubal spoke, his voice lower but his tone just as firm. “Sweetheart.” 

Maggie’s eyes flew wide and she only hoped they wouldn’t make too much noise as they fell _out of her damn head_

Sweetheart? 

Kristen didn’t seem offended by the epithet. On the contrary, she bit her lip, shaking her head as she stared up at him. “You can’t call me that here,” she said and her voice was a cross between amused and exasperated. Or, as Maggie considered when she reached out, her index finger crooking in one of the belt loops of Jubal’s pants and pulling him closer, something else entirely. “You know what it does to me.” 

Jubal’s hands landed on her shoulders, sliding down a little and moving back up in a way that seemed intimate, familiar. Again, like he’d done it a million times. “So I’m using my powers for good, rather than evil.” His voice was lower than usual, in timbre as well as volume, and Maggie could see Kristen shiver. “Let me take you home.” 

He leaned in then, brushed his lips over hers in what he evidently meant to be a gentle kiss. Kristen seemed to take exception to that though, because when he pulled back, she made a little noise of protest, using the finger still in his belt loop, her other hand resting on his chest, to keep him where he was. Rising up on her tiptoes, she kissed him and there was nothing brief or gentle about it. Oh no, it was the kind of kiss that was absolutely going to lead somewhere and, in Maggie’s experience anyway, it was usually some kind of horizontal surface. 

Which, she wondered, would be worse? Hiding in the back of the room with her fingers in her ears, or stepping out right now and admitting she’d heard their entire conversation? Of course, it wouldn’t be a problem for long, because either option included her dying of embarrassment so at least there was that. 

She was spared from having to make a choice by Jubal pulling away, resting his forehead against Kristen’s. “Okay, we absolutely cannot do that here,” he said and Maggie thanked every lucky star in the sky for that. He sounded wrecked, she noted dimly, like it was costing him everything he had to actually say the words, to move back from Kristen in the first place. 

“You started it.” The words may have been said with a chuckle but Kristen didn’t sound any better than Jubal. Her fingers played with the buttons of his shirt, her voice almost longing. 

“And I’ll finish it.” Jubal’s voice was a low rumble, his hands sliding down Kristen’s back, to her hips and then lower, palming her ass and pressing her body against his. Maggie squeezed her eyes shut tight because she really didn’t want to see that. “Let me take you home... sweetheart.”

Kristen sounded breathless when she whispered, “Okay,” and there was thankfully no more talking, no more whispering and definitely no tell tale rustling of clothing. There was only the sound of the door opening and closing and Maggie counted to one hundred before she decided it was safe to open her eyes. 

But a few minutes later when Isobel ordered everyone home for the night and eight hours rest, she couldn’t help but notice the little smile that Jubal shot Kristen’s way and she found herself wondering how she’d ever missed what was suddenly so obvious.


End file.
